


New Gallifrey

by Godwouldhateme



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Depression, Found Family, Friendship, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, LGBTQ Character, Mental Instability, Multi, Polyamory, Slow Burn, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-08-14 03:15:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20185342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Godwouldhateme/pseuds/Godwouldhateme
Summary: "Now both of them were trapped somewhere in space and time, possibly entombed together, a time machine’s corpse and a young Time-Lord girl."A young Time Lord called Scout escapes from Gallifrey before the end of the war. With no knowledge of what happened to her people, she runs into the Doctor. Cautious of the consequences of her running away from the war, she sets off on an adventure with the Doctor under the guise of being a human companion.The act can't last forever though, and Scout soon finds herself with difficult choices to make regarding the fate of her species, her relationship with the Doctor and one Rose Tyler, and her desire for freedom.





	1. Episode 1

Her twin heartbeats thumped away in her chest as she ran. Her feet slipping on the slick marble of the hall. Her mind was perfectly blank except for the pounding noise of her own footsteps and one resounding thought,

‘Run.’

The sky burned a vibrant orange through the windows, casting wine-red shadows on her frightened face. The twin-sunsets obscured by a thick layer of smoke. A once beautiful sight now obscured by the smog of war.

“EXTERMINATE”

The echoing noise of Dalek laser fire reverberated in the distance. The ground shaking underfoot of machinery and the heavy weaponry currently bombarding the planet.

She rounded the last corner sharply, skidding across the floor, her destination coming into view. 

The open archway lay in front of her and, beyond it, the red Tardis fields of Gallifrey. 

Her dress-skirts whipped her legs and her corset hung loosely around her frame where she had snapped it’s bindings earlier in her attempt to hasten her escape. She tore at the rich velveteen material now, pulling it from it seams and releasing her from its oppressive weight. Now, dressed only in her under petticoat she could run much more freely.

“C’mon, c’mon,” she gasped for breath, “damn legs move faster!”

The noise of her feet hitting the ground stopped abruptly as she passed through the arch, the soft un-packed dirt cushioning her step. 

It was almost peaceful. The tall-red-grass of the field flowing at her sides, the blades of grass caressing her fingertips softly. The air tasted thickly of ash, but for a moment the sounds of battle seemed to go silent around her.

It reminded her of being a child. Newly loomed* and wide-eyed, playing in the fields with the other children. They would hide in the grass for hours, playing in their own make-believe worlds. Dreaming of the stars.

Scout had always wanted to be an adventurer. She had craved it since her days in the nursery. That’s why she had enrolled in the academy. She’d studied for decades so that she could travel to the galaxies promised to her. But, the promise of endless exploration had been a lie. She had graduated ready to see foreign skies and new worlds. 

Then the war had begun, and she never even had a chance for her feet to get off the ground. All Tardises were called back to Gallifrey, and the dream of freedom had been snuffed by fear.

And now, she was fleeing, and the stars were finally her goal. 

She slammed, palm first, into the first Tardis she came upon. Her hands scrambling on the coarse coral-like surface of the undisguised living-machine. Her fingertips caught on the door latch, and she threw herself into the larger on the inside ship. 

The console room was dark, the lights of the controls dim from being unused. A thick layer of dust and grime covered the machine. 

She squinted as her eyes adjusted.

“Just my luck,” Scout muttered, eyeing the dashboard, “I picked an old bloody bastard!”

The Tardis light flashed on brightly, the whole thing shuddering around her in anger.

“No offense of course,” She let out a nervous chuckle, “love me a good ol’fashion death trap.” 

She patted one of the support beams, grimacing as her hand came away covered in muck. She wiped it unthinkingly on her already ruined dress, before cracking her knuckles loudly. 

“But,” She smiled brightly, rolling her shoulders, “It’s not the time for condescending chatter!” She grabbed the randomizer on the console, “Now,” she took a deep breath, glancing back at the door she had come through, “it’s time to run .”

She pulled the lever, catapulting herself into time and space and away from the only home she had ever known.

Unknowingly, never to return. As, in that exact moment, Gallifrey burned behind her.

“Oh, this is an absolute blast!” Scout hollered as the ship shook violently. It felt as though the Tardis was being ripped apart around her as they whirled through the Time Vortex. 

She tried to snag the nearest stabilizer switch with one of her shaky hands, but the Tardis lurched sharply.

“Woah there!” She stumbled, hitting the floor with a thud. She could feel a hell of a bruise forming where her hip dug into a support beam, “Give a girl a warning before you sweep her off her feet!” 

The machine lurched again, and, once more, Scout was sent flying head-over-heels. This time landing hard on her back, her shoulder giving a loud pop.

Gasping, she sat herself up. Her short curly dark-hair sticking up in every which way. 

“Blimey,” she roughly smoothed her hair back, wincing as her arm clicked back into place, “That’s some static time feedback. I’d be surprised if we didn’t just put a hole through a decade!”

A groan of metal shifting and warping under immense pressure scraped through the air. Scout slammed her hands over her ears at the piercing noise. 

“No, no, no that doesn’t sound good at all!” she watched as a gasket on the console popped, releasing a thick cloud of steam into the room. Her eyes widened in shock, and she scrambled to her feet.

“Don’t give up on me now!”, she smacked the console once, and then once more when that had no effect, “we’ve got a whole universe to see!”

The Tardis only started to shake worse. Scout's hands went flying over the controls in an attempt to do anything in her power to fix the collapsing machine. But the controls were quickly growing too hot to handle.

“C’mon!” She pounded her fists against the dashboard as her attempts went in vain, wincing when they came away red from the heat, “We’ve only just escaped!”

Another gasket popped, and the temperature in the Tardis began to become stifling. 

She glanced at the console readout, “Right, coolings down. I can work with that!”

A cracking noise ran through the room and the ship rocked back and forth.

“Stabilisers burnt out, that one’s not great!” She reached for the breaks, “Maybe we just try for a nice simple landing, yeah?”

She hit the brake lever, but nothing happened. The ship continued to sway to and through. 

“Really? No brakes,” She raised her arms in frustration, stumbling around in the chaos, “I need the brakes…”

“At least we still have power!” She said sarcastically.

The room went dark as all of the lights went out. The red emergency lighting flickering on beneath the floor’s grating. 

Scout yelled in frustration.

“Right then,” she snarked, “worst-case scenario here,” She wiped the sweat from her brow, “only one thing to do, then!”

She punched the emergency brake and in a beat of one of her hearts, everything went silent. 

She collapsed against the dashboard. Taking inventory of her bruises and scrapes. Nothing too serious, a couple of strained joint but nothing a little time-lord advanced healing couldn’t fix-up. 

She let her eyes flutter closed, and she glanced at the completely dark console. 

“Oh no,” Scout sighed, “you really were a damn ol’beasty weren’t you?”

She stroked the shell of the Tardis. Because that was what it was now, just a shell of something once living. Now both of them were trapped somewhere in space and time, possibly entombed together, a time machine’s corpse and a young Time-Lord girl.

“You only had one last trip in ya, huh?” She rose back to her full, fairly short, height, “must’ve been ancient.” 

She wandered around in the dark for a bit before patting around the waist of her petticoat. If only she could find her- 

Ah, there it was. She pulled out her sonic-lighter. Flipping the top-off she fumbled with the switch until it turned to torch mode. 

The small light illuminated the room.

“Now I just need some presentable clothing, and then I can see if I’ve landed somewhere not completely hostile and unsurvivable,” she gave a half-smile, “certainly is an adventure I’ve gotten myself into.”

\---

Scout rolled the ankle on the single pair of gray pinstripe trousers she had managed to find in the Tardis. The ship had locked all of the rooms before it had kicked the bucket, leaving her only with access to the main console room. 

Luckily, the previous owner had left a bit of a mess, and she had managed to come across a well-worn travel trunk containing a change of men’s clothing and an old-earth videocassette labeled plainly, _‘Phantom Menace’._

She had quickly decided that the oversized clothing would have to do and had happily redressed. 

She had managed to Macgyver her sonic torch into an improvised headlamp, and the faint light was the only illumination in the dark room.

Now, she stood contemplatively taking in her still frazzled, but less dirt-crusted, form in the low-light. She had managed to deal with the overly long pants by rolling them four times and shoving the legs into her dark leather boots. She had done-away with her ruined corset and instead wore a threadbare grey jumper. 

She let out a huff, attempting to push her oily hair behind an ear, but the raven strands were too short.

“Why do I even need hair?” she mumbled angrily to herself. “Oh look at us! Powerful ol’ Time Lords, and what do we got here? Hmmm,” She mocked, pulling on the dirty strands, “Yes! Of course, still got hair on our heads! Can evolve past death, but we haven't evolved past that have we?”

She leaned back against a wall in frustration. 

She glanced over at the door, her body perfectly still. Nervous, that's what she was. All full of jitters and fears, because right outside that door was something entirely new. Something she had longed for her entire life. 

Now that she was here though, she was only filled with dread. 

Dread over the fact that her only route of escape was dead. Dread that she would be caught for running away from her homeworld. Dread that, outside that door, was something infinitely worse then what she was running from.

“What am I going to do?” she murmured, eyes still locked on the door.

Her mind ran through all the possibilities, all the horrible outcomes, but one thing remained the same in all her scenarios. She couldn’t stay in this dead ship, at least, not forever. 

She rose quickly from the wall with that thought. Marching across the room robotically, she made her way to the door. 

“How bad can it really be right?” She reached out for the door handle. “It’s not like 99.9% of planets have inherently hostile atmospheres, is it?”

And she opened the door and stepped out of her sanctuary.

  
“Oh, ‘scuse me there! Didn’t see ya,” a woman said as she almost bumped straight into Scout. 

“Sorry, my bad,” Scout quickly moved out of the way in shock.

Another passerby's shoulder brushed up against Scout’s, jostling the young Time Lord.

She turned in panic, coming to the awareness that she had landed in a rather crowded park. The woman who had bumped into her moments before was walking a small dog on a rather garish pink leash. 

Scout blinked dumbly at the bright green plant life and rather bland inhabitants going about their daily lives.

“Well then.” Scout smiled brightly.

“Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, Sol III - _Earth. _The year, hmmm.” She stuck her tongue out to taste the air, “2012! _”_

A rather large man bumped into her this time, knocking her back into the doors of the Tardis, which felt decidedly more metal than they previously had.

“Watch where you're going!” The man yelled, only now looking up from his mobile. His eyes, however, glanced right off of Scout’s small form and instead locked on the ship behind her. He blinked confusedly for a moment. The Tardis’ inherent cloaking making its presence hard for the man to focus on.

His face went red and he glared back down at her.

Scout paled. What was she doing! Landing a Tardis in the middle of a populated pre-space flight civilization. When the council found about this she was going to be dead. Worse then that actually, she was going to be planet locked. Her Tardis license stripped and her academic achievements revoked.

“Um er, well you see,” Scout started to try to explain, but the man held up a single hand to stop her.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  
“Well-”

“You think you're better than everyone else?” he barked.

“What-”

“You and your kind aren't welcome here,” he started angrily. “You teenage punk-”

“Oi, who are you calling a teenager?” Scout stepped forward, frowning.

“Don’t play dumb, I know your type,” He huffed, looking down his beaky nose at her. “you young kids and your van homes, well guess what?” He didn’t wait for her response, “We don’t want your hippy-dippy type loitering in our parks.”

“Van homes?” Scout furrowed her brow, “What do you mean my van home?”

“Yeah, then? What do you call your vehicle right behind you?” The man scowled.

“That’s not a van. That my-” Scout turned around, her mouth falling open at the sight.

Instead of the undisguised Tardis, a perfectly average looking blue van was parked behind her. 

The paint on the vehicle was old and well scratched, but it was rather bland and otherwise unmentionably normal in appearance. 

Scout sagged in relief. The Chameleon arch must have still have been functioning when they had landed.

“Right then, my Van” Scout corrected herself quickly. She turned back towards the man who was waiting impatiently with his arms crossed over his chest. 

“Well, you see,” Scout started. “Not a teenager, and er, possibly might be a punk but…” 

She fumbled a bit in the bigger-on-the-inside pockets of her borrowed pants until she triumphantly pulled out what she was looking for, 

“As you can see I’m perfectly within my rights to park here. I’ve even got a permit!” She flashed the slip of psychic paper at the man.

The man grabbed the paper from her hands, looking it over thoroughly looking increasingly more sheepish as his eyes trailed across the paper. 

“Sorry Miss.” He handed the paper back to Scout. “didn’t realize you were with tree services. Knew the storm last night blew down a couple of branches, but I didn’t expect anyone out here so soon.”

“Right, yes! Tree services, “ Scout nodded vigorously. “That’s me! And, eh, this is my van for… tree things.”

He nodded at her before he continued to walk on.

She slumped against the back doors of the van as soon as the man was out of view. 

“Well then.” Scout let out a tense sigh. “I got one thing right, the atmosphere is definitely hostile.”

However, despite her less-than-warm welcome. Scout was ecstatic. She was on an alien world! And not just any alien world either, Earth! A hotspot of ever quickly advancing technology. Surely she could find something on this planet to help her, well, get off of this planet.

Also, Cardiff! What a stroke of luck. It was well known that Cardiff was host to a rift in space-time that was particularly grand for charging Tardises. Her chances of escape were becoming more and more probable. 

//2 weeks later//

Scout hung from a makeshift swing strung up in the grating of the Tardis, humming to herself loudly as she worked. She was tinkering away with some of the wires in the Tardis’ circuitry. 

“Right then!” she said suddenly, wiping her oily hands on a stained towel she had ‘acquired’ from someone's garden. “Attempt number 17; jumping the power grid with a boost from my sonic in an attempt to use any lingering time energy!” 

She pulled her sonic lighter from the front pocket of the leather jacket she had also ‘acquired’. 

It had been two weeks since she had crash-landed in Cardiff. So far she had been having no luck with any of her attempts at getting off-planet. But, considering she had nothing better to do than to keep attempting the impossible, reviving the dead Tardis, she had been continuing with the effort.

She flicked the sonic lighter to repair mode and grabbed the two wires necessary from her jumbled mess of work. 

“Here we go!” she said excitedly, pushing the wires together into the light of her sonic-

SNAP

A rather large spark came from her lighter, and the entire bundle of wires caught on fire.

“No, no, NO!” Scout stumbled back quickly, falling off her swing and back into a pile of scavenged metal. 

“You're not supposed to start fires!” she growled, looking down at her dinky tool. She threw it across the room in frustration, only to quickly scramble from her spot to hold it once more. 

“I’ll just fix the repair setting, yeah,” she mumbled. “Then I can fix the ship, and then I can go explore space and time. Easy.”

She yawned, exhausted. Time Lords slept far less regularly then humans, but she had been going non-stop since her crash landing. Pulling a two-weeker was doing nothing for her frazzled nerves. 

She stumbled her way back to the ladder and climbed her way up from the undercarriage and into the main console room.

Scout had never managed to open any of the sealed rooms, as they had deadlocked when the ship died.

Essentially she had been living out of the main room. 

The floor was covered in wine bottles and bags from takeout chips. She had found all other local cuisine to be unpalatable to her Gallifreyan tongue. 

But, yes, wine and chips were fantastic! Especially chips with vinegar and salt.

She liked the salt. 

She had rigged up a projector of her own design after becoming curious over the videocassette she had originally found on board. Even now the projector was on.

She may have become a bit obsessed with the Phantom Menace. It had been playing constantly in the background since she managed to get it up and running. 

She liked the background noise, it was almost like she wasn't alone. 

She’d also rigged up a hammock, although she hadn’t gotten the chance to use it yet. But, sleep was sounding rather good right now to her frazzled mind.

She could close her eyes, maybe, just for a bit. 

She flopped into her hammock with a groan. Falling asleep as soon as her head hit her old rolled-up dress she was using as a pillow.

\--- 

Scout woke to week three of her strandedness with a start. The pod race scene played loudly in the background as she rubbed the sleep from her brown eyes.

Her usually warm tawny complexion was paled and ill-looking from a combination of bad diet and lack of sunlight. 

She stretched irritably, flopping back into her hammock noisily. She felt rather terrible, physically and mentally. 

This was the longest she had ever been without the contact of another Time Lord, used to the constant background telepathic connection she had with her closest family, the silence felt draining. 

She had hoped, possibly, that she would awaken back on Gallifrey. The war and her hasty departure being a bad dream.

But no, she was still trapped Earthside, and her possibility of escape seemed to be becoming increasingly more unlikely as the weeks went by.

Perhaps trying to revive the Tardis wasn’t worth her time. Scout mulled over her other options. 

She could potentially scan for alien tech. That would, of course, require her to build a scanner. That was more feasible than ship necromancy. 

She hauled herself out of her bed and over to a pile of her gathered spare parts.

“Time to make a machine that goes ding when things happen,” she said sleepily, “just gotta hope things actually happen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Time Lord’s, being incapable of sexual reproduction, canonically create new time lords using ‘looms’ aka breeding engines. Each loom is owned by a House of Gallifrey. Time Lord's can be loomed in full-grown bodies, but they are still considered children until they are around 200 Earth-years old. Scout was loomed into the form of a child.


	2. Episode 2 part 1

Scout pulled her makeshift sword from where it sat hilted at her hip. She bent her knees slightly bracing herself for combat.

Her body was poised for attack. Every nerve in her body on edge.

In an instant, she lashed out at her invisible assailant. 

Parry, strike, and parry again.

Sweat dripped off her forehead from her exertion. She breathed deeply, trying to calm her racing heartbeats. 

She blocked an invisible downwards blow. Rolling herself backward to redistribute her momentum. 

Quickly rising back to her feet, she whipped her body around with a powerful thrust of her blade.

She aimed for where her opponent's heart would be.

In time with Obi-wan’s blade sinking into Darth Maul’s chest on the projector behind her, Scout’s blade pierced through the air in front of her.

For a moment she stood still, the young Time Lord mirroring the young Jedi’s stance. Abruptly, however, she broke free from her stillness with a happy little dance.

“Yes!” She cheered, throwing the wooden stick she had crafted into a sword- of sorts- behind her, “Finally got the footwork down!”

She celebrated by picking up a bottle of wine of the Tardis’ floor a draining the rest of it.

“Masal Tov,” She smashed the bottle into a nearby beam, giggling madly.

Two months. Two long months she had been stranded on Earth.

At first, she had spent every waking hour working on her escape plans. After the first month, however, she had exhausted all 207 of her plans. She had eventually resorted to waiting for attempt number 18; her alien tech detector.

But, it had been a month and a half since she had built it, and other than some odd background signal setting off a few false alarms, the damn thing hadn’t gone off.

Then she had taken to wandering around Cardiff for a bit. She figured out how to hack into local ATM’s near the beginning of her time here, but she hadn’t used her money for anything except for food. 

Instead, she had gone scrap hunting for parts and various knick-knacks.

She had taken to keeping herself busy in the meantime. Her current favorite hobby was memorizing the choreography from her copy of The Phantom Menace. She liked the lightsabers. She found herself longing for Galifrey’s advanced technology not only so that she wouldn’t be trapped but also so she could build herself a laser sword. 

She found herself daydreaming more and more each day since she lacked the proper mental stimulation. Not that she had anything against Cardiff, per se, but it didn’t intellectually compare to Gallifrey. 

So, that's what she found herself doing this afternoon. Absentmindedly daydreaming about Star Wars and trying her best to keep her mind off of the stress of her situation.

She had almost given up hope when a sharp trilling noise broke through her musing.

She blinked owlishly at her alien tech detector.

“It can't be,” she mouthed to herself, before scrambling over to the small metal device.

She read the readout with bated breath, before gasping with delight. 

“Oh, that’s so _ wizard _,” she said, excitedly. Her fingers flew over the various small dials and bobbles, adjusting and refining the signal.

As she honed onto the signal her face broke into a huge grin.

“Time Lord tech, most definitely,” Scout jumped to her feet, the detector still in hand. She grabbed her leather jacket from the banister, “c’mon, no time to waste!”

She raced out the door, eyes locked hopefully on the device in her hands.

A slew of parking tickets with passive-aggressive notes on them blew into her Tardis as she fled. No meter maid had been able to move her ‘van’, and they had seemingly gotten frustrated at her for its stagnation in the middle of the park. Not that she could move it, mind you. 

Scout paid the slips of paper little attention as she began her hunt for whatever Time Lord device had set off her radar.

She walked at a brisk pace, paying no mind to the humans around her. 

As her device whirred and beeped, she turned and ran down Cardiff’s streets

“Please, please be something useful,” she pleaded. The cool air of the day musing her hair, which had grown slightly from its pixie cut since she had been landlocked.

She passed by a group of school-age children on their way home from classes. Almost bowling one over in her haste. 

“Sorry!” She yelled back at them. Her stride increasing in pace as the signal grew louder and louder. 

When the signal became unbearably loud, she stopped abruptly in her tracks. Her head snapping up from the device, eyes wide and searching.

She whipped her head back and forth searching the alley-way she had come upon. 

“Where is it?” She murmured, her breath coming out in shallow puffs. Her legs ached from her physical exertion. 

She stepped forward into the shadow of the buildings.

Her eyes glanced over the dumpster and old boxes that lined the alley. Some leaves lay in the gutter but nothing caught her eye. The alley seemed average, like something she ought to just ignore.

Ah, something was cloaking itself to be less noticeable. A familiar Time Lord trick.

She squinted, furrowing her brow. It had to be there somewhere. Somewhere she didn’t want to look.

That’s when the hint of blue caught her eye. 

She peered towards the opposite end of the alley with keen interest. There stood what looked like a tall blue box barely peeking out from around the corner of an old stone building.

She cautiously wandered towards it. 

Her steps echoed on the cobbled backroad, and she slipped her scanner into a pocket so her hands were free, just in case.

The blue box looked human, but so did Scout so that didn’t hold much ground. 

She came to stand directly in front of the strange thing. Reading the sign above its door,

‘POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX’

“Police public call box?” She murmured, questioningly. 

She reached out to touch the door handles but hesitated. The air around the police box vibrated with vortex energy, and the various thoughts in her head came to a sudden glorious conclusion.

“Standard notice-me-not-cloaking, a chameleon arch, and residual time vortex energy,” she muttered under her breath, gently reaching out to caress the blue wood, “It can't be…”

The box was a Tardis. A real, fully functioning Tardis.

“Who left you all alone out here?” She murmured softly. 

The vortex energy was fresh, but the chameleon arch seemed to be broken. Scout couldn’t recall seeing any blue police boxes around Cardiff.

Maybe this Tardis has been abandoned here some time ago. The vortex energy just being a result of the nearby rift.

There was no real reason for a Tardis to be on earth now except for it being abandoned. All Tardises and Time Lords had been called back to Gallifrey years ago to fight.

To her knowledge, she might as well be the only one off planet. 

She mindlessly reached out to grab one of the door handles. Her hand gripping it tightly, she gave a slight tug. 

The door didn’t budge. 

She frowned and tried again.

Nothing. 

And once more.

Nada.

“Really?” A man’s voice called out from right behind her.

Scout turned around sharply towards the voice, stumbling on her own feet.

She let out a small screech as she tumbled backward onto the hard ground.

Leaning against one of the alley walls was a tall man in a leather jacket. His hair was neatly buzzed and his face clean-shaven. He looked to be middling in age for a human.

His two ice-blue eyes gazed down at her in amusement.

“Er, hello?” She gave a small wave from her spot on the ground.

“You asking that or are you saying hello?” The man asked raising a brow at her nervous demeanor.

“Saying?” She asked, before correcting herself, “I’m saying hello. So, uh, Hello.”

“Well then,” the man grinned back at her copying her small wave, much to her chagrin, “hello!”

The man reached out a large hand, wiggling his fingers in an invitation for her to grab it.

She did, cautiously.

He hauled her up from the ground. Steadying her by her shoulders when she started with surprise.

“Right as Rain,” he said brightly. Before looking back at the Tardis and frowning slightly, “Why try three times?”

“What?” Scout questioned, startled by the man’s rapid change in behavior. 

“You tried to open the door three times,” he gestured back at the box, “Just seems like an odd amount is all.”

“ Well,” Scout started, “ I just wanted to be certain.”

“Certain of what?” he threw back.

“That, er, the door wasn’t just jammed,” she said weakly.

For a moment he seemed to accept that response, nodding sagely before a confused look passed over his face again.

“Why the third time, then?” He asked.

“Why not?” She replied dumbly. Did she really need to explain herself to this strange man?

“Well, you tried once, fine. Door didn't budge,” he moved towards the Tardis, patting the side of the box fondly, “Then you tried again. Just thinking, _ ‘we’ll maybe that was just a fluke _’” he mimicked her voice in a shrill soprano.

She scowled at him.

“Then,” he continued, ignoring her obvious ire, “You try once more. Why?”

“I just wanted to see if it would work that time,” she huffed out. The answer sounded dull even to her own ears.

“But it didn’t work the last two times,” he countered.

“I don’t know,” she grumbled, “Why do you even care?”

“Well,” the man liked down at her curiously, “she is _ my _ box.”

Scout’s blood went cold. 

His box? If the Tardis belonged to this strange man, that would mean that he was a Time Lord like her. 

And if he was a Time Lord, then he must have a very good reason to be away from Gallifrey. 

Maybe they had sent him after her to bring her back to be punished for running away. Perhaps his infuriating questions were just a distraction and at any moment he would drag her away to face her fate.

Her inner turmoil must have shown on her face because the other Time Lord began to look rather concerned. 

“You alright there?” He asked.

Scout just stood there unseeing, unhearing, just caught in her own rumination.

“Right then,” he said, looking her over. His face softened slightly at her openly panicked form, “If you’re afraid I’m gonna be mad at you for trying to get into my box, I’m not,” he held up his hands, placating, “You were curious, nothin’ wrong about that, just human nature.”

Her gaze snapped to him at that. 

_ Human nature... _Human nature! He thought she was human.

That made sense, she supposed. If he hadn’t been sent there to get her, he probably would have no reason to suspect that another Time Lord would be mucking around on Earth. 

She relaxed slightly at that thought.

Maybe that was her way off the planet. If she could convince him that she wasn’t a threat, maybe she could get onto his Tardis and-

She flinched as he tapped her on the head lightly with his knuckles.

“Anybody in there,” he joked as he knocked gently on her head.

“Hey!” She yelped, knocking his hand away from her, “Hands off!”

“Ah! She lives,” he took a step back from her once more. Giving her a comfortable amount of personal space. 

Scout stared at the odd Time Lord for a moment. Wondering who this weirdo could possibly be.

“My name’s, Scout,” She blurted out, surprising even the Time Lord across from her with the suddenness. She shoved her hand out stiffly, in the gesture of a human handshake.

“Just Scout?” He asked curiously. He took her hand with much more ease then she offered hers, “No last name?”

Her mind whirled quickly in an attempt to remember common human surnames.

“Smith!” She exclaimed, “Er... Smith Scout, well Scout Smith.”

The corner of his mouth turned up slightly at her babbling. 

“Well then, Scout Smith,” His voice held a note to it that Scout couldn’t fully grasp. He shook her hand firmly, “I’m the Doctor.”

Scout must have paled visibly because suddenly the Doctor was once more steadying her by the shoulders.

“You're a nervous one aren’t ya.” He commented, “You sure you're okay?”

She nodded dumbly because right in front of her was the Lord Doctor. _ The Doctor. _ He was a thing of stories on Gallifrey. Member of the Prydonian Chapter, an exiled member of the then-disgraced, now-reinstated, house Lungbarrow, former candidate for Lord President, and most importantly renegade.*

A renegade Time Lord who was known for his disdain of Time Lord law. He, who had openly broken the Non-Interference laws before, and who most certainly was the most dangerous man that she could have possibly stumbled upon.

“So, just the Doctor,” she stated nervously, then hesitated a moment before chuckling softly, “no last name?”

**Doctor’s POV**

_‘Smith,’ _The Doctor thought to himself with amusement. A fairly plain name for a very odd girl. Not that he believed her for a second, no. He knew that she was trying to pull one over him.

The Time Lord, however, wasn’t too concerned. He knew a runaway when he saw one and wasn’t one to press on personal details.

He looked Scout over as she fidgeted where she stood. Her clothes were at least a size too big and worn thin from age. Her frame was rather short and slightly gaunt as though she hadn’t had a good meal in a long while. Her dark curls laid messily over her face and could have used a good wash and cut in The Doctor’s opinion. 

That settled it for him. She was probably just another young human girl trying to carve out her own little place in the universe. She’d probably left home as soon as possible and had been roughing it ever since. 

The Doctor smirked. Reminded him of himself if he really thought about it.

“Well then, Scout Smith,” He spoke with fond emphasis on Smith. Reaching out to grasp her awkwardly offered hand, “I’m The Doctor.”

He watched as the girl’s dark skin paled considerably, and he reached out to steady her lightly as she swayed where she stood. 

“You're a nervous one aren’t ya.” He commented, “You sure you're okay?” 

He watched as she nodded slowly, and he considered pulling out his sonic to scan her to see if she was okay.

_‘Probably shouldn’t though,’ _ he thought, _‘With how jumpy she is she’d probably pass out at the sight of alien tech.’_

She surprised him slightly when she spoke once more.

“So, just the Doctor,” she began softly before hesitating the pausing. She chuckled to herself before her eyes met his full of amusement, “no last name?”

“Ah, just The Doctor,” he rubbed the back of his neck abashedly, “Off to a bad start here then, aren't we?”

**End Doctor’s POV**

“Wouldn’t say bad,” Scout said, scuffing the toe of her boot on the ground, “wouldn’t call it good either, although it could have been worse-”

The Doctor suddenly pressed a hand over her mouth. Scout panicked, trying immediately to push him off, but he wouldn’t budge. She brought both of her hands up to his wrist in an attempt to pry him away, but she stopped suddenly when she heard the rustling of large wings.

A shadow circled overhead.

“Don’t make a sound,” he whispered quickly, “Not even a word. And, whatever you do, don’t look up,” he let his hand drop when she gave an aborted nod in understanding.

The two of them both fell completely still. The large shadow still circling overhead.

Scout could hear an odd crackling sound coming from somewhere above them; something between the sound of fire burning and a metal can filled with marbles being shaken. 

Her hearts beat double-time in her chest. She kept her eyes focused ahead at The Doctor in an attempt not to follow through with her instinctual desire to look at what was happening above. Scout noticed that the doctor had engaged his respiratory bypass and had stopped breathing. The only motion to his form the double beat of his pulse under his pale skin.

“CRirK, CriRK, CRirrK,” The creature called again.

The shadow grew larger and larger as the creature descended from above. Scout heard what sounded like taloned claws scraping the stone of the building behind her.

The rustling of wings came to a stop, and the shadow loomed now from its perch up above.

Scout was filled with absolute fear. Every bone in her body ached to run away from the danger above her, but she instead mirrored The Doctor’s rooted posture. She hoped the more experienced Time Lord knew what he was doing.

The shadow shifted slowly as though it was about to spring down upon them.

“CRirK, CriRK, CRirrK,” This time a more distant call came from somewhere to the North. 

Instantly the creature above them bristled. It’s shadow increasing in size around them. It replied loudly, causing both The Doctor and Scout to flinch at the clawing noise.

The noise of flapping wings picked up once more, and the shadow slowly but surely disappeared into the distance.

They both stood still in the aftermath. Listening as the wing beat faded into the distance. 

Their silence was broken when she noticed that The Doctor had begun to breathe again.

“What was that?” Scout asked imploringly, her frightened eyes locking with the Doctors.

“The reason why I’m here,” he said with a jarring amount of peppiness, “why, you curious?”

“Curious? More like terrified,” she replied, staring at the other Time Lord in disbelief. 

“Well, no reason for that. The Fenick Cuckoo doesn’t eat apes,” he wrinkled his nose at the thought, “much too iron-y,” he jabbed his thumb at himself, “Me, on the other hand, I’m a nice tasty snack!”

“Absolutely perfect,” she muttered to herself at The Doctor’s attempt to put her at ease. It wasn’t his fault though, It might have worked if Scout was actually a human and not the same species as him.

“That’s why it swooped down on us right here,” he said, “they’ve been absolutely starving on this planet. Completely wrong food source! You see-”

_‘I’m going to die on this planet,” _she thought sullenly as The Doctor went on, _‘Maybe it would have been better to just stay in my Tardis and go mad instead of being eaten by some ravenous beast.” _

But as The Doctor continued to ramble something occurred to her. This was her chance! He had given her the perfect opportunity to worm her way into his Tardis. She just had to play human.

“Did you, er, say planet?” Scout interrupted him, “Like those flying things-”

“Fenick Cuckoos,” he corrected.

“Right, Fenick Cuckoos...” she corrected, “they’re like, really aliens?”

“Yep,” He responded cheerfully. Sticking his hands into his jean pockets. 

“And they won't eat me because I’m _human _,” she fibbed, trying to make it sound like she was thinking over a rather confusing problem. She faked a gasp, pointing at him accusingly, “But you said they’d like to eat you, so you must be an alien like them!”

He looked her over appraisingly before remarking, “You’re not half as daft as you act.”

“Oi,” She scowled at him, “I’ve just discovered that aliens are real, give me a break!”

He held out his hands in a placating gesture, “You’re right on the nose too. I’m not human, and that means that every second you spend around me you’re putting yourself at risk of being an accidental after-dinner-mint for a rather large reptilian bird,” he shooed her away, “so go off then! I’ll be on my way.” 

She watched startled as he turned heel and began to walk away. 

“You can’t just leave!” She called after him.

“Yes I can,” he said as he continued to walk away, “I’m doing it right now. Bye!”

She gave a huff before running down the alley to catch up with him.

“But there are apparently giant alien birds on the loose,” She pleaded as she matched up with his walking speed. It was hard with her being at least a head shorter than him. One of his strides was easily two of hers.

“Giant alien birds with very large talons,” he agreed not bothering to look down at Scout, “and they aren’t interested in you.”

She hesitated. Scout couldn’t tell him that they would also want to make a meal of her. If he figured her out she could be in serious trouble, but she also couldn’t let him wander off without her. That would mean losing her only route of escape.

“What about you though? They want to eat you,” she blurted out, “You can’t kill those things on your own!”

The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks spinning around to look at the much shorter girl.

“Who said anything about killing them?” He said, offended by the very idea, “I’m not going to kill them.”

“Then whatcha gonna do with them?” Scout’s brow wrinkled in confusion. 

“Catch ‘em,” He remarked as though it was the obvious answer, “they’re an endangered species. Not quite sure how a breeding pair ended up on Earth, but they’ve already set up nest and I can’t just let them stay here.”

He reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a small capsule.

“Pod-net,” he explained at her curious look, “most humane way to capture them. I’ve just gotta get them, collect their clutch, and bring them back to their planet. Simple catch and release.”

“But how are you going to get close enough to catch them,” she looked at the net curiously.

“Got to tempt them with their favorite treat,” he pointed at his face, “live bait.”

“That is the most idiotic idea I’ve ever heard!” Scout slammed her hands over her mouth as her snark got the better of her. She had just disrespected an older Time Lord! Did she have a death wish?

But Scout watched in shock as The Doctor did nothing more than smile at her outburst, “Scout Smith, I think we’re going to get along swimmingly!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Just some notes because The Doctor’s canon past is so convoluted. 
> 
> -The Prydonian Chapter is the generation of Time Lord’s responsible for producing notable members such as The Master and The Doctor. Chapters also each have a college associated with The Time Academy.  
-Lungbarrow is one of the old Great Houses of Gallifrey with a complicated history.  
-Yes, he did actually run for Lord President, but I believe it was just because he wanted to spite another candidate.  
-Renegade is an actual classification for Time Lords who go against Time Law.


	3. Episode 2 part 2

Scout fumbled with the pod-net that the doctor had tossed her.

“Might as well make yourself useful,” The Doctor remarked at her confused glance, “since you won’t stop following me, that is.”

He was right. Scout hadn’t stopped following him. She’d been trailing along side him nervously for a couple of blocks now. She didn’t have anywhere else to go and with her Tardis dead she didn’t really have a choice except to follow the Doctor.

She picked self-consciously at a spot of dirt on her second-hand jumper. She felt young and a bit silly under the Doctor’s sharp gaze. She felt her face flush with embarrassment. However, instead of falling silent, she did what her guardians had once chided her incessantly for; she ran her mouth.

“What’s the plan then?” She asked, slipping the net in her coat pocket, “you do have more of a plan than, ‘ _ Oh look! Come and eat me you big glorious bastards!’ _ right?” 

“Language,” He chided at her, “and yes, of course, I have a plan.”

She just walked beside him for a moment, waiting for him to elaborate. The Doctor, however, seemed to feel no need to do so.

“So what is it then?” Scout prompted.

“What's what?” He joked.

“Oi, don’t be rude,” She glared at him, “what’s your plan?”

“Well,” The Doctor began, “as I said before, I'm the bait. The Fenick Cuckoo we ran into earlier was most likely just scouting, huh scouting for Scout,” he smirked at her annoyed expression before continuing, “you see, Fenick Cuckoos hunt in their breeding pairs.”

“So, the other one we heard before-” Scout interjected.

“Was its mate and the backup,” he nodded, “I told you earlier, hearing is their best sense. They’re probably still trailing us, a ways back, but still listening.”

Her nails bit into her palms as she clenched her hands tightly into fists. Dread setting in at the Doctor’s words. Those  _ things  _ were still around. She nervously glanced towards the open sky, but she saw nothing except for the slight cloudy overcast. 

“They’re stalking us,” Scout faltered in her steps. Going back to her dead ship and locking the doors forever was seeming like an increasingly appealing idea.

“Stalking me,” he corrected, “I told you to run off, but you insisted-”

“Don’t start lecturing me,” Scout interjected anxiously, “just tell me what we need to do.”

The Doctor gave an over the top sigh, seemingly oblivious to her fear, “Well, they’re already trailing me. So, bait successful! Now, all we need to do is set a trap.”

“Don’t you usually set a trap before baiting an animal?” Scout felt absolutely flummoxed with The Doctor’s logic.

“Well- er- yes,” The Doctor seemed to become flustered at this, the tips of his rather large ears going pink, “I was going to do that, you see, but circumstances got in the way.”

“Circumstances?” She repeated.

“We’ll a strange girl was trying to break into my Tard- police box. Kinda cut into my trap setting time,” He deflected.

“It’s not just a box is it?” Scout feigned confusion, “It’s something else, isn’t it? Something alien.”

“Why would it be something Alien?” He deflected. 

“Well you’re alien, and it is your box,” She offered as an answer, “I’ve just connected the ideas.”

“You haven't connected anything,” the Doctor quickly shut her down, “sometimes a box is just a box,” He gave her a sharp look, “I’m turning right up here. Keep close if you really want to help.” 

Scout frowned in frustration. It seemed as though every time she had an opening to try to get more information from him, the older Time Lord would just shut her down. She had to try some other way of building his trust in her. 

“I do want to,” she said rushing once more to match his pace, “help you, that is.”

“And I’m absolutely sure you’ll be a big help,” the Doctor gave a sardonic smile.

Right then. Questions only got her confusing responses and deflection, and her declarations of earnesty seemingly meant little to him. Scout’s brow furrowed softly as she thought through what she wanted to say next. 

She wished she had better people skills, but she had always been one for more impulsive talking and action-taking. Her lack of interest in the Academy's diplomatic classes seemed to be coming back to haunt her.

“Well Pot-kettle,” She blurted out gesturing vaguely at him. 

“What?” he started at her comment. 

“There- er, well they're both black,” She thought about it for a moment, “I guess that doesn’t make much sense, does it?” She focused her attention back on picking at her jumper, “I just mean you haven’t done much of anything yet, so you saying I haven't helped is a bit, well, ironic.”

“Do you ever stop talking?” He asked her with thinly veiled amusement.

_ ‘Score one for Scout _ ,’ She mentally cheered, _ ‘I’ve finally said something he doesn’t hate!’ _

She smiled brightly, “I’m of the highly controversial opinion that it’s my best trait.”

“Brilliant,” the Doctor remarked, “maybe we can use that to our advantage!”

“How?” Scout inquired.

“Well, how fast can you run?”

\---

“This is a horrible idea,” Scout mumbled as she pulled on the Doctor’s leather jacket, handing him her rattier one in dismay. 

“No,” He smiled, tossing her much smaller coat on in one fell swoop, “It’s brilliant.”

She eyed the older Time Lord with a light amount of disdain. While his coat dwarfed her frame, hers barely came to his waist. The only reason he could fit into the ridiculously small coat was the fact that it had been quite large on Scout.

“Something tells me you always think your plans are brilliant,” she mumbled to herself. 

“What’s that?” He asked, looking up from fixing the too-short sleeves that were a good three inches from his wrists.

'_This man is an idiot,”_ Scout thought looking him up and down, _‘I wonder what my friends would think if I told them the Doctor was an absolute fool…’_

“Nothing,” She cleared her throat. She had to stop herself from laughing at just how gangly the Doctor looked, “just walk me through this _brilliant_ plan one more time.”

"Right then,” he said, ignoring the mocking tone in her voice, “you’ve got my jacket-”

‘Yeah, but-” Scout began to interrupt.

“Shush,” He poked a finger into her shoulder causing her to scowl, “you’re the one who asked for a recap, so be quiet.”

Scout crossed her arms over her chest putting on her best ‘listening’ face.

“So, you’ve got my jacket on. Which means you smell like me,” he gestured at himself, “a nice tasty snack.”

Scout must have made a face because the Doctor gave her a sharp look. 

“And,” he continued, “because you smell like me, and you got one hell of a mouth on ya, the cuckoos will follow you.”

“As much as I love the complete disregard for my safety,” Scout said angrily, “I do not have a death wish!!”

He frowned sharply, “How many times do I have to tell you, their not interested in apes. Once they figure out you’re not edible, they’ll leave you alone.”

_ ‘But they won’t give up!’ _ Scout’s mind urged her to scream,  _ ‘I’m like you! They’ll hurt me,’  _ but she pursed her lips instead. Clenching her jaw in an attempt to stifle her terror.

“Then, I’ll use this,” the Doctor continued, pulling out a similar device to the pod-net that he had given her earlier, “to close off the area. Then, when they catch my scent, they’ll come after me and you can use your smaller pod-net to capture them- it’s bigger on the inside,” he ended his explanation with a pat to her arm.

“Right, bigger on the inside,” she ran her thumb over the device, imagining a million ways that everything was about to go wrong.

She weighed the pros and cons of going through with his plan. On one hand, if she didn’t help, she would most likely be stuck on Earth forever. She shuddered at the thought. At least, in that situation, she would still be alive. At the cost of her ability to explore the entire universe, but alive nonetheless. 

On the other hand, she could go through with it. Maybe, if she was really lucky, the cuckoos would still be distracted when the Doctor closed off the area. 

She looked over at the Doctor, watching as he pulled a sonic screwdriver from his pants pocket. He fiddled with the device, scanning over his net. 

She’d put the chances of success at a minimum though. 

Then there was the option of telling him the truth. That she wasn’t human, that she was just as alien to this world as he was, and that she was trapped and scared on this planet. Alone with no way to go home. 

“Any questions?” The Doctor asked, still brandishing his sonic. He turned up from scanning the net to meet her gaze.

“None,” She said. She couldn’t tell him what she was because she couldn’t be sure that the Council’s punishment wouldn’t be worse than death by giant bird. 

“Great!” The Doctor said. Scout watched curiously as he lifted the sonic to the air, “then we really should get to work.” With a flick of his wrist, the screwdriver let out a high pitched buzzing.

Scout slammer her hands over her ears, “What are you doing-”

“CRirK, CriRK, CRirrK,” came the same horrid cawing from before. 

Scout’s fingers went numb. 

“Hey,” the Doctor said seeing that she had once again gone still with fear. He placed his hands on her upper arms. The Doctor frowned at how cold she seemed under his coat. 

Humans ran much warmer than Time Lords, so the difference was disconcerting.

“This must all be a bit of a shock,” the Doctor tried to get her eyes to focus on him, but her mind must have been a thousand miles away because she only stared blankly past him, unblinking.

He spotted an encroaching shadow out of the corner of his eye.

“Listen,” he said sharply. Scout’s eyes snapped to his, “Just make a racket and run, It will only be a moment before I spring the trap.” 

Sure, the Doctor thought that Scout was a bit odd, definitely a loudmouth, and possibly inquisitive to a fault (if that was even possible), but she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and a kind heart in her chest. He couldn’t fault her for her fear.

He squeezed her arms and gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile, “I promise everything will be fantastic.”

Scout came back to herself to find the Doctor’s face less than a foot away. His cool blue eyes staring imploringly into hers, but before she had to process what he was saying, he took off down the road. 

She blinked off her shock, only to notice the large winged shaped outline on the ground below her. 

“Shit!” She yelled, jumping into action as she felt a gust of wind that could only mean one thing. The cuckoo was swooping. 

  
Scout took off in the direction the Doctor had run like a bat out of hell. 

Her feet hit the ground with a frantic rhythm and, for a moment, she was on Gallifrey once more. Her world burning around her. The smoke in her lungs-

Sharp talons rake through her hair, barely missing her scalp.

“DOCTOR,” she shrieked in terror as she ducked her head into her arms. Protecting her face from the bird's razor-sharp claws.

“CRIRK, CRIRK, CRIRRK,” the second bird suddenly skid to the ground in front of her, knocking up some of the asphalt with it's immense weight, and causing Scout to stop dead in her tracks.

Earlier the Doctor had told her not to look up at the birds and, now, as Scout felt the bile rise in her throat, she could see why. 

They weren’t feathered, no, they were something far worse. With skin that looked sunburned and raw, the cuckoo was a gory mash of scales and flesh. 

Six pinched black eyes stared down at her over a razor-sharp beak. It blinked inconsistently as it watched her shaking form. 

_ ‘Is this a bird?’  _ Scout thought as she took an unsteady step backward. She had never seen one before; there were no birds in her copy of Phantom Menace.

The cuckoo’s head perked in interest as Scout shifted back. Leaning forward on the two claw-like protrusions on the end of its wings, it sank further towards her. It’s four flaring nostrils scenting the air.

Scout heard a heavy thud behind her as the bird’s mate landed. 

And, just like that, the bait had fallen victim to its own trap.

“Crirk, crirk, crirRK,” the two cuckoos called softly to each other as they began to circle their prey’s still-form. 

Scout clenched her eyes shut. Staying as still and silent as possible, hoping that her lack of sound and movement would cause them to leave as they had done before. 

But the dragging noise of the birds' heavy body’s shuffling closer accompanied by their metallic coos only continued. Moving, ever so slowly, further into her personal space. 

She could feel the bird behind her’s breath on the clammy skin of her neck. The Doctor’s jacket clung to her damp skin. 

Scout felt a sob bubble up in her throat as the reality of her situation set in, but she choked it down in self-preservation.

She could feel the air around her grow heavy with humidity. Hot breath puffing across her body. 

She opened her eyes. The large open maw of one of the birds appeared in her vision.

“SCOUT!” The Doctor yelled from afar.

Her head snapped towards his voice, the bird in front of her lunged, and Scout’s world went white.

  
  



End file.
